The Last Straw
Not to be confused with Obstacles and Arguments, there comes a time when the hero or heroine does something that leads to something that is terrible at its worst, like the hero's worst tantrum, crossing the line, or the breaking point in a story. In other words, this is the last straw. Oftentimes, the last straw would come up when all the hero suffered leads him to his breaking point. It could also happen when: * A bully or someone's teasing goes too far. * The hero's relationship with someone is tested. * The hero goes through a lot of stress. Noteworthy Examples * Merida slashes her family's tapestry in anger during an argument with her mother. * Owen Grady knocking the dinosaur models off the table in anger when Claire Dearing didn't listen to him about The Indominus Rex. * Karen Sympathy snaps at Rocky and Bullwinkle about wanting results during their first fight. * When Miguel Rivera blurts out that he wants to be a musician, his family forbids it and Abuelita, in a desperate attempt to protect him, smashes his guitar. Fed up with his family's hatred of music, Miguel runs away from home in tears, taking Imelda's photo with him. * When Belle enters the West Wing and tries to touch an enchanted rose, this leads to the breaking point in the story, where the Beast yells at her to get out of his castle. **The 2017 film elaborates on this, with the Beast fearing the curse on the castle will never be broken if Belle breaks the rose. * When a defiant Simba coldly exiles Kovu believing he was involved in the outsider's ambush set by Zira, he gets an argument with his daughter Kiara that she will not leave Pride Rock unescorted and forbidding her to near Kovu, resulting to defy his father Mufasa's paw prints that he himself must follow, breaking the Circle of Life, and Kiara finally rages to him that he will never be Mufasa. * After Sebastian spills the beans about Ariel being with Eric, King Triton confronts Ariel in her grotto, leading to their breaking point. * Eep Crood tries to call Guy with her shell horn but her family breaks it. With that, she flies into a rage and hits her brother on the head, which in turn makes Grug furious. * Harry Potter reaches his breaking point when Aunt Marge insults his deceased parents in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. * Shrek is going through tons of stress at his children's birthday party, with the three pigs having eaten the cake, and a bratty kid repeatedly pestering him to give him a roar, to which Shrek eventually lets out a roar of frustration. When a replacement cake with a cute looking ogre decorated on it is brought into the room, Shrek finally loses his temper and smashes the cake with his fist before storming out of the party. *Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible: While in a meeting with his boss Mr. Huph, Bob sees a man outside the window getting mugged and tries to alert Mr. Huph to the man being mugged, but Huph nonchalantly remarks that he hopes that the victim isn't insured. Bob attempts to save the victim, but Huph threatens to fire him if he leaves his office. Bob then sees the mugger running away and succeeding. Enraged that he failed to save a citizen and disgusted by his boss' callousness, Bob finally snaps and he snatches Huph by the throat, before tossing him through five walls, severely injuring him. * Max crosses the line when he bursts forth in front of his mother and bites her on the shoulder when she tries to take him to his room. * After Terrell and his goons turn his friend Kevin against him, Chiron reaches his breaking point and smashes a chair over his back out of revenge, which leads him to get arrested and sent to juvenile hall. * After Cloud and his friends arrived Gold Saucer, Barret Wallace who has painful past, finally reaches his breaking point, when Aerith Gainsborough attempted to cheer him up, yelling at them to stop messing around and they're are still aftering Sephiroth and he jumps off to the Wonder Square. * After Billy screams at his spider-like son, Jeff and telling him to get out of his life, Jeff reaches his breaking point and yells at his father, Billy for being a really horrible father to him, because of Billy's bad parenting to Jeff over the years. * After an argument with Batman about Poison Ivy's kiss being poisoned, Robin reaches his breaking point and snaps at Batman, saying that he doesn't need his help. * After seeing his girlfriend, Videl getting brutally beaten by her opponent, Gohan reaches his breaking point and powers up to Super Saiyan. * After seeing his model plane getting broken by D.W., Arthur reaches his breaking point and furiously punches D.W. in the arm. * After Josh rips Drake's foam finger in half, Drake reaches his breaking point and screams "I'M MOVING OUT!" as takes all of his stuff and the broken foam finger and leaves Josh's room. * Bruce Nolan: Upon learning that his rival Evan Baxter got the anchor job instead of him, Bruce has a hysterical and childish tirade on the air, which results in him getting fired. * Greg Focker; after several streaks of bad luck, Greg finally snaps when a flight attendant tells him that he must have his bag checked but Greg refuses and insists he takes it with him (the airline had earlier lost his bag and gave him the wrong one), and and yells at her that, among other things, it's not like he's carrying a bomb in his bag, which of course results in him being removed from the plane by security. * Sunset Shimmer loses her temper and snaps at Flim and Flam, as she angrily yelled "IT'S NOT ABOUT THE PARAKEET!!" and slapped it right out of Flam's hands. * Lloyd Garmadon: After is tired up of his father evilness he destroys the ultimate weapon that controls Meowthra and tells to Garmadon that he wishes he wasn't his father. * Mrs. Jumbo: Finally loses her temper when some rude boys mock her son for his huge ears. Unfortunately, it results in her getting deemed mad and locked away. * After Zack and Cody disobey their mother, Carey by sneaking out to London's internet show, Carey Martin reaches her breaking point and grounds Zack and Cody again in rage. * Pidge yelling at her mother about finding her brother and saving her father from the Galra doesn't give her a pass, after her mother punished her. * After Jessica scared the children as she dressed up as Lao Ban Santa, her neighbor, Deidre Sanderson snapped at her, that's she not getting a Tickle Me Elmo for her son, Evan. Quotes Category:About Heroes Category:Heroic Events Category:Conflicts